​Black Montana

Although it is now the least black state in the nation, Montana once boasted a substantial, interconnected and widespread African-American community, the core of which lay in the state’s capital, Helena. There, despite prevalent structural racism and white supremacy, a flourishing group of tightly-knit families and individuals built, and cohered around, a stable foundation of community businesses and institutions that endured for decades. Hagen's research into the history of Montana’s black community documents its establishment in the 1860s, its heyday (ca. 1877-1910), and its subsequent decline (through the 1960s).

"The fullest, richest account of African American history in Helena and much of the rest of Montana that I have seen anywhere . . . narrative history at its best." Dr. Quintard Taylor, Jr.,Scott & Dorothy Bullitt Professor of American HistoryUniversity of Washington

African-American Heritage Places in Helena, MT, a National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation that examines the history of Montana's African-American community through a focus on Helena, the state capital and the heart of black Montana.

The Dorsey Grocery and Residence, a National Register of Historic Places Nomination that traces the history of one of Helena’s most prominent black families—the Walter and Almira Dorseys— and the residence and store they built. Their home housed several generations of extended Dorsey kin, while the store was the most visible and substantial black-owned business in town. As such, it not only served African-American and other customers but also functioned as a focal point of the local black community, an exemplar of black achievement and an independent space owned by, and supportive of, African-American residents.

The Crump-Howard House, a National Register of Historic Places Nomination that narrates the story of two of Montana’s earliest and most prominent black residents—James and Clarissa Powell Crump—and three generations of their descendants.